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Memes, Themes, and Rhetorical Schemes: Analyzing the themes and rhetorical devices used by meme creators in American political internet memes in the first week of the Ukrainian-Russian War

Zimmerman, Edward B
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Abstract

Internet memes carry news messages to mass audiences through social media platforms. In seconds, global events can be transmitted to millions of users in the form of an image with text overlayed. Despite the power of memes, there has been little scholarly research devoted to the selection mechanism of meme-makers. As both audience and creator, meme-makers’ craft and consume messages capable of influence. Grounded in work on rhetorical analysis and framing, this study examined memes posted to conservative and liberal affiliated Reddit communities in the wake of the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The analysis focused on the themes and rhetorical devices utilized by meme-makers to present political actors and issues to the American public. The results revealed 10 themes designed for conservative and/or liberal audiences and five rhetorical devices used by meme-makers to craft memetic messages.

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Date
2023-12-13
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Keywords
Memes, Thematic analysis, Rhetoric, Politics, Participatory culture, Russia, Ukraine
Citation
Zimmerman, Edward B (2023). "Memes, Themes, and Rhetorical Schemes: Analyzing the themes and rhetorical devices used by meme creators in American political internet memes in the first week of the Ukrainian-Russian War." Thesis, Georgia State University. https://doi.org/10.57709/z7vr-r080
Embargo Lift Date
2023-12-13
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